A pioneer in the field of spiritual awakening, he is a healer in
private practice, assisting others who are awakening to the dream-like
nature of reality.

He is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A
Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis, which is available at his website
www.awakeninthedream.com.

He can be reached at paul@awakeninthedream.com.

He
is delighted to receive readers’ response to his articles, but regrets that
time constraints in this 3-D reality do not always allow him to personally
respond. Please feel free to pass this article along to a friend if you feel
so inspired.

[An inflated consciousness] is incapable
of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary
events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future.
It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It
inevitably doom itself to calamities that must strike it [and others
within its sphere of influence] dead.C. G. Jung

George W. Bush is suffering from a
peculiar but not that uncommon form of madness in which a pathological part
of his psyche has co-opted all of the healthy parts into its service.

Speaking about such a pathological condition,
Jung commented that,

“…an unknown ‘something’ has taken
possession of a smaller or greater portion of the psyche and asserts its
hateful and harmful existence undeterred by all our insight, reason, and
energy, thereby proclaiming the power of the unconscious over the
conscious mind, the sovereign power of possession.”

Bush has been taken over by an unconscious
complex of the collective unconscious. We speak of a mother complex, or a
father complex, but Bush has what we could call a savior complex.

Jung said,

“The savior complex is an archetypal image
of the collective unconscious, and it quite naturally becomes activated
in an epoch so full of trouble and disorientation as ours.”

The archetypal figure of savior is literally
dreamed up into incarnation by the field to be both a compensation for and
an expression of the disorientation and dissociation in the field.

Being a reflection of the greater underlying
unified field, this figure will embody the unconsciousness of the time.
Because of the unconsciousness in the field, the person playing the
archetypal role of savior will reflect this unconsciousness and become
inflated, blown up out of human proportion by the power of the archetype.

He will then, of necessity, be compelled to act
out his hubris in a way that is destructive for all who are under his
dominion.

Inflated by the power of the underlying archetype, Bush is suffering from
delusions of grandeur, and has become megalomaniacal. He is unconsciously
identified with the archetype of the Messiah.

“One should listen to the inner voice
attentively, intelligently and critically, (Probate spiritus!) [test the
spirits], because the voice one hears is the influxus divinus
consisting, as the Acts of John aptly state, of “right” and “left” strea,
i.e., of opposites.

They have to be clearly separated so that their
positive and negative aspects become visible.” John 4:1 says, “Do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God.”

Just because one hears an inner voice doesn’t
necessarily mean it is the voice of God. Listened to uncritically, we could
just as easily be seduced by the Devil.

Bush has become inflated with an archetype of the collective unconscious,
which is an expression of madness. He has become identified with one side,
the light, of an inherently two-sided polarity, and projects out the other,
dark side, which he then tries to destroy. By shadow projecting in this
manner, Bush has become possessed by the very evil he is projecting outside
of himself.

This is to fall under the spell of the Devil,
who is rightly called “the deceiver.”

A clearer case of madness is hard to imagine.

Jung describes such a situation by saying it is
an,

“…overwhelming manifestation of the “blond
beast” [of prey, a figure popularized by Nietzsche], which seizes the
unsuspecting soul with nameless shudderings. The seizure transform him
into a hero or godlike being, a superhuman entity."

He rightly feels himself “six thousand feet
beyond good and evil.”

Because of his inflation, Bush literally feels
himself above human morality, as he is under the self-generating delusion
that he is the supreme moral arbiter, not realizing in the slightest that he
has fallen into his unconscious, whose dark side he is acting out. Because
of his pathological condition, he is the last person who should be the judge
of morality, the very last person on earth choosing justices for the Supreme
Court.

Jung continued by saying,

“The psychological observer knows this state
of ‘identification with the shadow,’ a phenomenon which occurs with
great regularity at such moments of collision with the unconscious.”

Paradoxically, by dissociating and projecting
out our shadow, we become unconsciously identified with it, possessed by it,
and unconsciously act it out.

Speaking about becoming taken over by a complex
of the collective unconscious, Jung elaborates by saying,

“As a rule there is a marked unconsciousness
of any complexes, and this naturally guarantees them all the more
freedom of action.

In such cases their powers of assimilation become
especially pronounced, since unconsciousness helps the complex to
assimilate even the ego, the result being a momentary and unconscious
alteration of personality known as identification with the complex.

In
the Middle Ages it went by another name: it was called possession.”

Because of his complete unconsciousness, Bush
has unwittingly allowed himself to become an instrument for evil, the dark
half of the Self, to give shape and form to itself.

Speaking about what the devil symbolizes
psychologically, Jung said,

“The devil is a variant of the “shadow”
archetype, i.e., of the dangerous aspect of the unrecognized dark half of
the personality.”

Bush has become unconsciously taken over by the shadow
side of the savior archetype, which is to become possessed by the very thing
from which people need to be saved.

Becoming inflated and identifying with an archetype of the collective
unconscious is to step outside ordinary human boundaries, a state in which
genuine humility is impossible.

Jung said,

“The potentialities of the archetype, for
good and evil alike, transcend our human capacities many times, and a
man can appropriate its power only by identifying with the daemon, by
letting himself be possessed by it, thus forfeiting his own humanity.”

Any mental health professional would recognize
that Bush’s inflation is an expression of his unconscious identification
with (as compared to conscious realization of) God, which is an unequivocal
form of madness.

Lacking self-reflection, Bush is blissfully unaware of the perverse nature
of his situation, which itself is an expression of the extent of depravity
he has fallen into.

Speaking of a person who has fallen into such a
pathological state, Jung said,

“…they avoid self-criticism to an amazing
degree, preach to others, and know nothing of themselves. They are happy
to possess no self-knowledge, because then nothing disturbs the rosy
glow of illusions.”

By being inflated, Bush is unconsciously
accessing and unleashing the power inherent in the archetype - this is why
he has such an enchanting power over his followers.

By identifying with the archetype, the archetype
acts as an amplifier, enhancing beyond measure Bush’s hypnotic power over
his followers. Because Bush is so taken over by the unconscious, he has a
compelling and entrancing effect on others’ unconscious.

Only one who is
seized by an archetype has a gripping effect on others.

To quote Jung,

“It is a psychological fact that an
archetype can seize hold of the ego and even compel it to act as it -
the archetype - wills. A man can then take on archetypal dimensions and
exercise corresponding effects.”

By being so seized by an archetype of the
collective unconscious, Bush becomes an agent that has a very powerful
effect on the field around him.

When we become unconsciously gripped by an archetype, we become pawns in the
hand of a deeper power.

Succumbing to the compulsive adrenaline rush of
the “will to power” inherent in the shadow, Bush is, as Jung said in
describing Hitler,

“…like a man living in his own biography.”

Bush has become arrogant and full of himself, a
legend in his own mind, someone who feels he is not bound by law, and
believes himself entitled to get away with murder.

Speaking about being unconsciously taken over by
an archetype, Jung commented,

“Here we see the characteristic effect of
the archetype: it seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval
force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity.”

When we are gripped by an archetype and forced
to unconsciously act out its effects destructively, we are acting out the
dark side of this greater power. Etymologically, the word “transgress” is
related to the word “evil.”

The world literally shape-shifts around someone who is inflated and blown up
with an archetype, as this inner state of possession is able to
synchronistically express itself through the medium of the outside world.

To quote Jung,

“…archetypes are not found exclusively in
the psychic sphere, but can occur just as much in circumstances that are
not psychic (equivalence of an outward physical process with a psychic
one).”

When we become inflated by an archetype, there
is a synchronistic correlation between the inner experience of being
identified with the archetype and outer events.

The inner state of being possessed by the
archetype expresses itself by arranging external events so as to give shape
and form to itself. A person inflated by an archetype, such as Bush,
literally becomes the channel through which transpersonal, mythic forces
become materialized into our third-dimension, which just reinforces his
inflation in a diabolical feedback loop.

By identifying with the archetype, Bush becomes seized by the archetype’s
irresistible field of force and unwittingly becomes the agent who does the
archetype’s bidding. By being so taken over by an impersonal force, Bush has
become a “magnet” which torques the field around him so as to insatiably
feed his own pathology, while simultaneously wreaking havoc on the field.

Taken over by the archetype’s magnetic power, Bush achieves a certain
magnetism, which polarizes the field around it. Like a magnet, archetypes
are bi-polar, having a negative and a positive aspect.

On the one hand, the power of
the archetype
coming through Bush attracts people to support him in his delusion who are
suggestible to the overwhelming unconscious power inherent in the archetype.
In a co-dependent relationship, Bush’s followers feed his identification
with the archetype, which simultaneously nourishes their own bewitchment, in
a perverse, self-perpetuating feedback loop which develops an autonomous
life of its own.

At the same time, Bush’s identification with the archetype repels other
people, who react against the one-sidedness and perversity of his inflation.

By being so unconsciously identified with the
archetype, Bush will literally attract to himself, like a lightning rod
attracts lightning, other people’s negative, shadow projections. These
people will strongly condemn Bush, and see him as being evil. And yet,
people who react against Bush in this way are unwittingly feeding the
polarization in the field, perpetuating the very diabolical energy they are
reacting against.

If we concretize Bush as being evil, we are projecting our own shadow onto
him and are then guilty of the very evil of which we are accusing Bush.
Interestingly, another inner meaning of the word Devil is “the accuser.”

If we are accusing Bush of being evil, we are
guilty of the very evil of which we are accusing Bush.

Bush is merely an
ignorant human being who, due to his unrestrained greed, desire, and lust
for power is unwittingly allowing himself to be used as an instrument of
evil. Evil itself is a power, or principality that transcends the merely
human dimension, as it is archetypal in nature and thereby is a content
belonging to the collective unconscious.

Bush is simply a deluded human being who is
dangerous because of his position of power, which allows him to act out his
pathological process on the world stage.

We do not want to make the mistake of
attributing evil - an archetypal content of the collective unconscious - to
Bush as a person.

Becoming possessed by an archetype of the collective unconscious is an
expression of not only forfeiting our humanity, but of abdicating our
personal responsibility as well.

A true Faustian pact with the Devil, we discover
too late that what we have lost in the bargain is our soul. As in any such
bargain, we are ultimately responsible and accountable for our choices.
Identifying with the archetype of the savior is a compensation for a deep
inferiority, fear, and weakness. We become absorbed into the archetype due
to our inability and unwillingness to deal with the darker part of ourselves
that needs saving.

Though describing Hitler, Jung just as easily could have been describing
Bush when he said that he had a,

“…conceit that bordered on madness, a very
mediocre intelligence combined with the hysteric’s cunning and the power
fantasies of an adolescent.”

Bush is acting out the adolescent fantasies of a
war of good versus evil with our living sons and daughters as his toy
soldiers. Being inflated, Bush doesn’t relate to other human beings as being
autonomous or independent, but as pawns to serve his own narcissistic
blindness and masturbatory fantasies.

Jung pointed out that,

“Inflation magnifies the blind spot of the
eye… A clear symptom of this is our growing disinclination to take note
of the reactions of the environment and pay heed to them.”

When we are inflated, we don’t accept any
reflection or feedback from the outer universe that contradicts our puffed
up image of ourselves.

Instead of being open, receptive, and learning
from the outer world, we continually interpret everything to support our
delusory self-image. When we become inflated, we become closed to any
information or in-forming influence from the outside world, which is a form
of psychic blindness. Instead of being in genuine relationship to the world,
a person who is inflated relates to the world through their own
narcissistically self-serving, grandiose self-image.

Speaking about madness, Jung said that it,

“…consists essentially in the fact that the
unconscious in large measure ousts and supplants the function of the
conscious mind. The unconscious usurps the reality function and
substitutes its own reality.”

Jung continued that this resulted in,

“…senseless, unshakable judgments upheld in
the face of reality [for example, Bush saying, ‘the war in Iraq is going
well,’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary].”

Being caught up in inflation is like being
sucked up by a cyclone, as there is literally no getting through to the
person who is inflated, who has been taken over and lifted off the ground by
a more powerful energy. Bush and his supporters feed into and off of and
support each others’ unconscious madness so as to conjure up an impenetrable
field around them that resists consciousness at all costs.

It is only when their world - which in this case
is our world, too - self-destructs that the universe forces them out of
their psychosis.

Just as the unconscious always compensates a one-sidedness, inflation
inevitably results in all of the air (life, breath, spirit) being taken out
of the person who is inflated. Inflation is ultimately self-destructive and
always results in catastrophe.

Talking about inflation, Jung said that it,

“…can be damped down only by the most
terrible catastrophe to civilization, another deluge let loose by the
gods upon inhospitable humanity.”

The fact that our government, led by an inflated
madman, is insanely and endlessly investing in and feeding the industry of
creating weapons of mass destruction is an extremely dangerous situation for
all of us.

To quote Jung,

“Let man but accumulate sufficient engines
of destruction and the devil within him will soon be unable to resist
putting them to their fated use. It is well known that fire-arms go off
of themselves if only enough of them are together.”

Bush has let the spirit out of the bottle which
will undoubtedly destroy him.

Being possessed by the unconscious is a very
dangerous situation, particularly when the person so taken over is in a
position of power where he can act out as well as activate a virulent
madness on the world stage.

Bush’s madness affects all those under his
sphere of influence, which in this case is the entire planet.

Jung commented,

“It is abundantly clear that such an
abaissement du niveau mental [lowering of the mental level], i.e.,
the overpowering of the ego by unconscious contents and the consequent
identification with a preconscious [as compared to conscious] wholeness,
possesses a prodigious psychic virulence, or power of contagion, and is
capable of the most disastrous results.”

When such a “lowering of the mental level”
happens collectively, a psychic epidemic becomes activated in the field.

The (collective) unconscious goes from being in
the background and comes actively to the foreground, where it makes itself
known by (destructively) giving shape and form to world events. It is merely
a question of mitigating the damage of this virulent psychic epidemic for
the rest of us.

Seen as a dreaming process, we are all complicit in dreaming up Bush to pick
up the archetypal role of savior. Our doing this is clearly a reflection of
the part of ourselves which is disempowered and is not in touch with the
savior within ourselves. To be in touch with the savior within ourselves is
to be in touch with the wholeness of our true nature, which is to be truly
saved and redeemed.

To the extent that any of us get in touch with
the part of ourselves that is a genuine redeemer and leader, we literally
are dis-investing energy from the archetypal role of leader being dreamed up
outside of ourselves in a pathological way. When we consciously and
collectively access the part of ourselves that is a leader by our very
nature, we become truly empowered.

Being in touch with our God-givenpower
engenders a situation in which the savior archetype is consciously
distributed throughout the field, rather than being localized and
concentrated in a single figure, which is a set-up for abuse.

The only way to change the collective nightmare we are sharing is through
inner transformation in the individual, which collectively gets mobilized on
the world stage so that we can effect genuine change.

As each of us wakes up, we discover that we can
reciprocally empower each other so that we can consciously activate the
archetypal figure of the savior in the collective unconscious itself.

Mediating, humanizing and incarnating this
archetypal figure consciously throughout the field, we connect in lucidity,
stepping into being agents of light who collectively dis-spell the darkness
in the field.